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Grievous
Grievous, born as Qymaen jai Sheelal, was the cyborg Supreme Commander of the Droid Army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems for most of the Clone Wars. Biography Introduction Grievous was originally a Kaleesh from the planet Kalee, where he lived his early life. The Kaleesh were at war with the Huk in a conflict known as the Huk War. Qymaen jai Sheelal quickly learned the art of war, specializing in a slugthrower rifle. Quickly amassing a great number of Huk kills, he became a demigod among his people. He would then meet the female Kaleesh Ronderu lij Kummar, a master with the sword. The two became very close before her death at the hands of the Huk. Heartbroken, Qymaen jai Sheelal renamed himself Grievous, and then turned all his anger and grief towards the Huk. Aided by his elite, he forced the Huk off Kalee and then swarmed their world, conquering the Huk homeworld. The Huk turned to the Republic for help, and the Kaleesh were forced back to their own world by the Jedi, and left to starve. Desperate to help his people, Grievous took a job as an enforcer with the InterGalactic Banking Clan. However, after learning that the Huk had attacked Kalee, he headed home to gain vengeance. IBC Chairman San Hill, after consulting with his ally Count Dooku, leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, arranged for a bomb to be placed on Grievous' shuttle, Martyr. The Kaleesh was critically damaged, but lived, and then, Hill arranged for the final stage of his plan. Grievous was reconstructed as a cyborg with force powers, and was presented to Dooku as a potential weapon to be used in the upcoming war the Count planned. Grievous was made Supreme Commander, and then, proceeded to wreak havoc on the Republic for three years in the Clone Wars. The general was trained in the art of lightsaber combat by Dooku, who was also a Sith. Grievous was a quick study, and would soon be recognized as one of the most skilled duelists in the galaxy. Aided by his IG-100 MagnaGuards, Grievous killed many Jedi. He led the Confederacy of Independent Systems in the Battle of Hypori, where his existence was made public. In the many battles, such as the Battle of Falleen, Mission to Vassek, and the Battle of Togoria, the Confederacy was victorious thanks to Grievous's leadership. The fearsome cyborg struck fear into the hearts of many with Operation Durge's Lance, a massive strike at the Core. In 19 BBY, Grievous led the Confederate Navy in the Battle of Coruscant, an attack on the Republic's capital. Grievous killed several Jedi, and took Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Republic, hostage. However, before his flagship could jump to hyperspace, the Republic Navy arrived. The Chancellor was freed by the Jedi Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, who also succeeded in killing Dooku. Grievous fled to the Outer Rim world of Utapau, and attempted to regain control of the war, though the Confederacy had been dealt a great blow with the loss of Dooku. Early Life Grievous, started out as Qymaen jai Sheelal, a reptilian natives of Kalee, a world torn by famine and war that the justice of the Galactic Republic never touched. For generations, Kalee had been assaulted without respite by a technologically superior insectoid species, the aggressive Yam'rii (referred to by the Kaleesh as the "Huk", or "soulless bugs"), who coveted the Kaleesh as slaves. Sheelal was born on a world still embroiled in this conflict, known as the Huk War, so it was, perhaps, inevitable that he grew up hating the Huk. Sheelal's father, seeking a useful outlet for his son's anger, taught him how to handle a slugthrower rifle. The young Sheelal proved himself an excellent marksman, with a mind as finely honed as any weapon; by eight years of age he had already become an expert sniper, with more than forty Huk kills to his credit. By the age of twenty-two, he had slain so many Huk that the Kaleesh people considered Sheelal a demigod. Sheelal's closest comrade was a fellow Kaleesh warrior and mercenary, Ronderu lij Kummar. According to legend, his relationship with this wild and skilled swordswoman had its beginnings in a dream, in which Sheelal saw himself slaying a wild mumuu in the Kunbal jungle with Lig swords. So taken was he with this vision that he set out in his mumuu hunting mask to kill one in reality, but instead of finding a mumuu in the jungle, he saw Kummar, and realized that the slayer in his dream had not been himself, but the woman standing before him in a karabbac mask and wielding twin Lig swords. The two of them were, therefore, considered living manifestations of the cryptic Kaleesh parable Sheelal, or The Dreamer/The Dreamt One. The exact nature of their relationship is uncertain. Some say Kummar was Sheelal's long lost half-sister; some say she was actually his lover. Whatever the truth, their bond, once forged, was considered absolute and sacred. Kummar taught Sheelal to wield a sword, and in turn he introduced her to the powerful Czerka Outland rifle. Both clad in masks, Kummar with her karabbac skull and Sheelal with his mumuu skull (inherited from his father, who had died fighting the Huk), the two warriors became legends, twin demigods blessed by their ancestors. Together they mercilessly cut through the Huk invaders in countless campaigns. However, while they were invincible together, they were less so when fighting apart. In one engagement on the beaches of Kalee, the two of them were separated. Kummar died violently on the Huks' barbed shears, and her body vanished into the Jenuwaa Sea. Sheelal, unable even to retrieve her from the waters, was driven to despair and a horrible psychotic depression. Inconsolable, he set off on a dangerous journey across the ocean to Abesmi, an island-monolith far from the mainland. There, he beseeched the gods to raise her from her watery grave just so he might see her one final time, but the gods remained silent. Sheelal did what he could to bury his grief. He ended up taking ten wives and siring thirty children, but none of them, spouse or child, seemed to be able to fill the void Kummar's death had left in him. Eventually, he realized that it was his destiny to mourn for her as long as he lived. With this realization, Qymaen jai Sheelal cast off his old identity, adopting a name more appropriate to a being destined to grieve forever, and, even more terribly, who was determined that he would not do so alone. He would be General Grievous, as well as heart-broken, for the rest of his life. Becoming a cyborg In the service of San Hill Gathering to his side a group of equally bloodthirsty Kaleesh elite, the Izvoshra, Grievous became a vicious warlord and managed to force the Huk from Kalee. But his bitterness did not end with that triumph, and he pushed them further back, storming their colony worlds. His vicious attacks and mass destruction of entire Huk planets ensured Kaleesh victory; until the Huks unexpectedly turned to the Republic for help. Jedi Knights, sent to stop the war, sided with the Huks, and hefty fines and embargoes came down upon the Kaleesh. Kalee ended up in poverty, and hundreds of thousands of Kaleesh starved and died. The arrival of San Hill, Chairman of the InterGalactic Banking Clan, brought an opportunity to Grievous. Hill saw Grievous's potential as an IGBC "collections agent", and in exchange for his services, the Banking Clan offered to take on Kalee's massive debt, thus helping his people overcome the effects of the embargo. Grievous felt disgust at the notion of being a glorified leg-breaker for a soulless megacorporation, but he understood what the agreement would mean for his people, and besides, there was something in this innate warrior that needed to keep fighting—if not the Huk, then someone, somewhere. Eventually he agreed, taking command of the Clan's private army of droid enforcers. The IGBC kept its promise, alleviating Kalee's deficit and resuscitating its trade. In exchange, Grievous became an extremely effective enforcer. It was through his efforts that the IGBC aggressively collected overdue credits from Ord Mantell, and seized Phlut Design Systems when the company defaulted. But he found he missed the comforts of his former life; he wanted his old elite, the Izvoshra, but apart from himself, the Banking Clan would not hire Kaleesh. He would have to make do with droids, but, having no confidence in the IGBC's basic battle droids, he demanded more intelligent models to take the place of his elite. With Dooku's permission, Hill consented and began production on the IG-100 MagnaGuards. Grievous, at first, was disgusted with the droids because they were completely mindless. He soon demanded they be reprogrammed to watch him in combat and learn how to fight like his old comrades in his elite Huk-killing team several years before.